Finer in China

I was browsing some music sites and saw this guy's stuff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rHv7Ucmlb4 and looked deeper. He is seminally famous already but I found an acoustic show he did that really shows how talented he is. Yes, he sings like a mixture of James Blunt soft rock and Justin Timberlake's R & B. If you like that sort of thing which I don't normally. Nice guitarist though. What other music people/groups in China do you like? Could you post a link?

It was not a video so we don't know if he was smoking or posing! Anyway, the point was the positive letter to the Chinese.

possession and use, Oscar. The cops raided the place, caught him red-handed, along with the rest of that 'entourage'.Oh, didn't know Phelps was arrested with possession. If that's the case then he should do the same penalty as anyone else for that. I thought he was identified in a picture, not arrested or caught red-handed.Okay, I looked. He was not caught red-handed or arrested. Maybe you are thinking of when he was arrested for a DUI in 2004? So all they have is a picture of him. The rest is physically circumstantial. I'm not a big "throw pot smokers in jail" person, we have enough in our jails already. He got convicted and is paying for his "crime" in his own way now, sponsors and competition.

possession and use, Oscar. The cops raided the place, caught him red-handed, along with the rest of that 'entourage'.Oh, didn't know Phelps was arrested with possession. If that's the case then he should do the same penalty as anyone else for that. I thought he was identified in a picture, not arrested or caught red-handed.

Of course but it is still nice. There are so many others that do not make the gesture. Charged with what? A photograph? What can be proven with that?

Christie's auction of Chinese relics to proceed Auction giant Christie's has denied a possible private sale of two Chinese relics, saying that the auction will go on as scheduled despite criticism from China. In an e-mail to Xinhua, Christie's responded to reports in Taiwan's Economic Daily newspaper and the European Journal, a television program, which said Christie's would conduct a private sale of the Yuanmingyuan rabbit and rat head sculptures. The auction house said the reports "are not true". The two items, the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) bronze rabbit and rat head sculptures, will be auctioned by Christie's in Paris from Feb. 23 to 25. The sculptures currently belong to the Pierre Berge-Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) Foundation and were put up for auction by Pierre Berge. They were expected to fetch 8 million to 10 million euros (about 10.4 million to 13 million US dollars) each. "The YSL collection holds firm legal title to the heads and so we respectfully believe the auction will proceed," the auction house said in the e-mail. Stone from Summer Palace The two bronze head sculptures were housed in Yuanmingyuan, Beijing's Imperial Summer Palace. They were stolen when the palace was burned down by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860. Christie's carried a detailed description of the two bronzes on its website, saying that the two formed part of the zodiacal clepsydra (water clock) that decorated the Calm Sea Pavilion in the Old Summer Palace of Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795). "Constructed between 1756 and 1759 under the supervision of the famous Jesuit priest Giuseppe Castiglione, the heads are characterized by a distinctly Western style," Mathilde Courteault, head of the company's Asian Department, was quoted by the website as saying. Christie's announcement that it would auction the two relics aroused concern in China, with many online forums flooded with angry demands for the objects' return. A team of 81 Chinese lawyers has written to Christie's in an effort to stop the sale. Liu Yang, one of the lawyers working on the case, was unavailable to comment Thursday, but he told Xinhua Tuesday that they hoped Christie's could reconsider the sale of the relics, withdraw them from auction and persuade the owner to return them to China. Liu said the lawyers had also written to Berge, asking him not to auction the relics and return them to China. He said his team would sue Berge if there was no "positive feedback from them (Pierre Berge and Christie's) within a reasonable period." Christie's would be involved in the lawsuit as the third party. But he declined to say how long his team would wait for the "positive feedback". Christie's public relations officer in China, Chen Yan, confirmed that the company's Beijing office had received the letter. Li Xingfeng, another lawyer on the attorney team, told Xinhua Thursday that so far they have not received a clear reply from the auction house. Li said: "If Christie's proceeds with the auction, we will take further legal measures in France." Legal team's obstacles Since they joined forces last month, the attorney team has experienced several twists and turns in their attempt to return the relics to China. Their endeavor was halted until they found the Aisin Gioro family clansman association, representing descendants of Qing Dynasty-era Manchu royalty. This clan was the only group that, under French law, was qualified to bring suit as the plaintiffs. The team faced other trouble: finding someone to foot the bill. They eventually found a real estate company that asked not to be identified. It promised to donate 400,000 yuan (about 58,000 US dollars) to the plan. "No matter what the result is, we have seen great concern shown by Chinese people, and the case raised their awareness of protecting national treasures by adopting legal measures," said Li. China and France signed the 1995 Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects, which stipulated that any cultural object looted or lost during war, regardless of how long ago, should be returned. China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) said last month that Christie's auction of the relics was unacceptable and China would not try to buy them back. Song Xinchao, director of the museum department with the SACH, said the best way to deal with the issue was to ignore it, because some business people might exploit the patriotic concerns of the Chinese people to raise bidding prices for their own monetary gain. The American auction house Sotheby's tried to put a bronze horse head up for auction in 2007. But Macao billionaire Stanley Ho pre-empted the auction by purchasing the relic for 69.1 million Hong Kong dollars (about 9 million US dollars), and he donated it to the Chinese government. So far, five of the 12 bronze animal heads have been returned to China. The whereabouts of five others are unknown. (Xinhua News Agency February 12, 2009) http://www.china.org.cn/china/news/2009-02...nt_17269166.htm

China plans to launch its own 'Google Earth' China is going to set up its own three-dimensional (3D) Internet mapping system to provide high resolution photos to domestic online users, Changjiang Daily reported on February 11. The program, launched by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, is equivalent to "Google Earth", a global mapping server with a database storing numerous geographic images. Engineers from the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping discussed the technology in a conference held in Shanghai at the end of last November. Assistant Professor Chen Jing from State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, said: "In view of market demand, Google Earth only provides high resolution pictures taken from North America and Europe." According to Chen, compared with Google Earth, the pictures provided by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping feature higher resolution and cover a wider range of national territory. As long as the place is not subject to significant security restrictions, online users can search wherever they want in the country, said Chen. "We have the edge on building a domestic geographic database by collecting the pictures drawn with global position system (GPS) or taken from the sky," she explained. China used to operate tight restrictions on geographic photos with resolution higher than 30 meters. But the launch of Google Earth, featuring pictures with best resolution of 0.6 meters, acted as an inspiration on domestic researchers, Chen said. "We can provide pictures not involving confidential information to the public to meet market demand." Google Earth's reports of its US$1-billion advertising revenue and India's eager involvement in online mapping technology have motivated China to speed up its development in the mapping server program. To date, a research group led by Li Deren, an academician from the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, has designed a soft-ware called "Geo Globle" with the capability of dealing with the data involved, including 3-D pictures, aerial photos and information concerning borders, railways and aircraft routes. According to Chen, although the soft-ware, having taken 10 years to complete, still needs to be tested, the technology will become the backbone of a domestically-designed mapping server program. The researchers do not want to take any risk with national security by using overseas software. So far, Geo Globle has been applied in the Heilongjiang Geographic Information System, the Fujian Electric Power System and the national defense system. The technology is now awaiting approval from the State Council. (China.org.cn by Wu Jin, February 12, 2009) http://www.china.org.cn/china/news/2009-02...nt_17266521.htm ================================= This will be superb! I wonder how much of China will be considered not "confidential information"?

Very complimentary to China.

Stoner ... donahso or Phelps? What the recordsetting swimmer did was incredibly stupid, as were the people who took his picture (eight are under arrest when the cops raided their house and they all had pot), but the tone of the letter is nice.

But is it explained correctly? I have never been on a nonstop flight that stopped. Have you?

Yeah, you flew from somewhere important! My flights were non-stop and did not go through small towns either.

Did CCTV apologize for Phelps? Certainly missing the relevency of what you posted to this topic.

Phelps apologizes to Chinese fans To my Chinese friends, As many of you know, I recently engaged in behavior which was regrettable and not what people have come to expect from me. The past few days have been tough for me, but I've received support and encouragement online from so many Chinese friends. I will learn from these mistakes, train hard, and make you proud again. To the young people of China, please learn a lesson from this. Be positive in life, and do the right things. I've had so many great experiences in China over the past few years, and have enjoyed learning about your culture and your history. But it's the warmth and forgiveness in the messages I've received from China that has really lifted me up over the past few days. Thanks again for your support and encouragement. I look forward to returning to China soon. (CCTV February 12, 2009) Watch the video: http://www.china.org.cn/video/2009-02/12/c...nt_17264325.htm

Beer giants battle for China market The July 2008 merger of Belgian brewing giant InBev with America's Anheuser-Busch has upped the stakes in the battle for the Chinese beer market, say analysts. Growing dominance of multinationals The merged company, Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) is now the world's largest brewer accounting for approximately one quarter of global beer production and sales of US$ 36.4 billion. In China, apart from owning the Budweiser brand, AB InBev has inherited dominant positions in the southeast where InBev had 33 breweries, and the northeast where AB owned Harbin Beer. The world's second largest brewer South African Breweries (SAB) owns Shenyang Snowflake Beer and Sichuan Blue Sword Beer as well as a 49 percent stake in China Resources Breweries. Western China's beer market is dominated by Carlsberg Beer, which owns the Kunming Huashi Beer Company, Chongqing Brewery and the brewing division of the Xinjiang Hops Company. In China as a whole, Yanjing Beer and Henan Jinxing Beer are the only two domestic brewers without foreign partners. In 2007 the combined production of AB and InBev was 9.88 million kiloliters, compare with the 6.9 million kiloliters produced by South African Breweries (SAB) and Yanjing’s 4.2 million kiloliters. Ding Feng, director of the Investment Advisory Professional Committee for National Food Industry Productivity Center says the fast growing China market, comprising the world's largest population of consumers, is shaping up as a major battleground for the multinational brewing giants. Domestic brewers under pressure Fierce competition, brand clutter and excessive concentration on the low end of the market are creating difficulties for domestic producers, say analysts. Last year's high prices of barley and hops, the global financial crisis and a domestic price war have put smaller domestic breweries under severe pressure. Large and medium-sized brewers are resorting to mergers and reorganizations to cut operating costs. Financial Crisis has affected AB InBev Not everyone agrees that AB InBev will move quickly to consolidate a dominant position in the market. Some analysts say the global financial crisis will slow the integration of the companies' operations on the ground, and point to the sale of 262 million Tsingtao shares to Asahi to pay off debt incurred to finance the merger. Prepare to pay more for your beer But Ding Feng believes that the long-term future of the beer market lies with the multinational giants and as the market matures and people's expectations improve, the market share of high-end, high-priced brands will grow. Immediately after the merger AB InBev made a strategic decision to divide its Chinese beer brands into three levels, with Budweiser is positioned at the high-end. Some analysts believe the company's strategy is to focus on China's high-end beer market. According to marketing website just-drinks, the global high-end beer market will reach 65.5 million kiloliters by 2013, an increase of 74.7 percent over 2006. In Asia-Pacific, beer production will reach 13.5 kiloliters, an increase of 125 percent. The website says the Chinese market will be one of the main drivers of growth. (China.org.cn by Wu Huanshu February 12, 2009) http://www.china.org.cn/business/2009-02/1...nt_17264559.htm

John, try not to pile on with folks here against one member. There was NOTHING negative in Toot's post. That was basically saying once the woman gets here and certified, she will do her own thing. That is not negative, that is reality. I believe that is the way it should be. Stand in her way and then you are an obstruction to her.